"Beyond Scientific Doubt" is a mighty strong phrase.  I know little about 
DNA tracing, beyond the fact that you can trace back along the male line... 
father-grandfather-ggrandfather with confidence, and you can trace back 
along the female line mother-grandmother- ggrandmother etc.  That's 
mytochondrial DNA.... the stuff of Jurrasic Park.  But as I understand it, 
the vast middle ground is very difficult to trace.

I think that there are tests that can show how closely two individuals are 
related.

In any case, I would like to see the not only the analysis, but more 
important a review by some true experts in the field (contrasted to plodders 
like me).  Before we open up once again (choke, gasp) the eternal 
Jefferson-Hemmings debate, lets see some firm grounding of this new report.

Randy Cabell
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JEFFREY D SOUTHMAYD" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 6:57 PM
Subject: [VA-HIST] American Heritage Magazine Gets It Right


> In the Fall 2009? edition? in an article "Monticello Reborn", it notes 
> that "...such as the analysis of DNA, a process barely imagined a 
> generation ago but now able to prove beyond scientific doubt that some of 
> Sally Heming's descendants were from a male Jefferson descendant."
>
> J South
>
>
>
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